Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring Enhancements Help Customize Report Data
DebMed, creator of the world’s first electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring system based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene,” has released enhanced functionality for the hand hygiene compliance reports that are available in the DebMed GMS (Group Monitoring System).
Dr. Christine Cassel Named New President and CEO of National Quality Forum
The National Quality Forum Board of Directors has unanimously named Dr. Christine K. Cassel as its new president and chief executive officer. Dr. Cassel will begin her position at NQF effective mid-summer 2013.
Resident Fatigue, Stress Trigger Motor Vehicle Incidents
It appears that long, arduous hours in the hospital are causing more than stress and fatigue among doctors-in-training — they’re crashing, or nearly crashing, their cars after work, according to new Mayo Clinic research. Nearly half of the roughly 300 Mayo Clinic residents polled during the course of their residencies reported nearly getting into a motor vehicle crash during their training, and about 11 percent were actually involved in a traffic accident.
Minnesota Hospitals Improve Patient Safety
Concluding the first year of a two-year contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Minnesota’s hospitals participating in the Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Network record the prevention of more than 3,200 readmissions, 463 fewer patients experiencing a fall, and 158 fewer patients experiencing a pressure ulcer. The initiative builds on the Minnesota Hospital Association’s (MHA) award-winning Call-to-Action framework launched in 2007 and the statewide Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Effectively (RARE) campaign.
Costs of Care Announces Winning Essays: Providing High Value Care
Patients and their caregivers are uniquely positioned to recognize inefficiency in the healthcare system but are seldom empowered with information they need to reduce harmful spending. With the help of New England Journal of Medicine Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Drazen, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, former White House advisor and bioethicist Zeke Emanuel, and New York Times columnist and surgeon Pauline Chen, Costs of Care (www.CostsOfCare.org) launched an innovative essay contest this fall aimed at elucidating both the challenges and opportunities to save patients’ money with routine, cost- conscious medical decisions.
Update on Meningitis Outbreak Caused by Mass. Compounding Pharmacy
The Nov/Dec issue of PSQH included news coverage and commentary about the fungal meningitis outbreak caused in late 2012 by contaminated medications that had been shipped throughout the country by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. In The New England Journal of Medicine, Smith et al. report that as of Dec. 10, 2012, the outbreak resulted in 590 reported cases of infection in 19 states and 37 patient deaths. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, this outbreak is one of the most harmful adverse events ever associated with compounding pharmacies in the United States.
Does CMS Proposed Measure for PCA Safety Go Far Enough?
This is the question that I have been asking myself ever since Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced proposed quality measures it is considering for adoption through rulemaking for the Medicare program. One of the measures under consideration by CMS (proposed quality measure #3040) calls for “appropriate monitoring of patients receiving PCA [patient-controlled analgesia].”
Key Questions for Safety Projects
Safety-related projects may arise from root cause analyses of actual incidents, other structured risk identification efforts (e.g. failure modes and effects analysis), or external reports of adverse events that occurred elsewhere (e.g. Joint Commission Sentinel Events). An appropriate response to such information may be to undertake an effort to review and, where necessary, revise processes and technology so that the identified event does not reoccur, or not occur at all if the impetus is external information.
HTT and Datix Collaborate to Improve Patient Safety
Healthcare Team Training (HTT) – a global provider of services focused on improving patient safety, satisfaction and quality – and Datix – a leading supplier of patient safety software solutions – have announced their collaboration to use enterprise event reporting and risk management systems to improve quality and enhance operational efficiency.
ECRI Institute PSO Analyzes Data from More Than 100,000 Adverse Events
Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) permit healthcare providers to report adverse events under legal protection and are a rich source of important information that can be put into practice. With nearly four years’ experience reviewing patient safety data, ECRI Institute PSO has released important trends and guidance that can be used to reduce injury and deaths.